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Visitor Comments: 9

(6)
Sarah,
February 24, 2016 11:00 PM

I laughed out loud real hard at this clip! Sounds just like my teenage students!

(5)
moise3247,
August 16, 2012 6:43 PM

What does honor mean, if not respect?

Can you have one without the other?

(4)
Susan M,
August 16, 2012 12:00 PM

ethnic stereotypes

There's a new TV comedy, soon to vilify the Korean mother. Taken with good will, we can live through all of them.

(3)
Anonymous,
August 15, 2012 10:20 PM

Honor, not Respect, for our parents

I love that Judaism commands us to honor our parents. Not love; not even respect. These are emotions. These have to be earned. Some parents never earn them--they're abusive, self-absorbed, neglectful of their children's basic needs. But they are worthy of honor because they serve as Hashem's conduit for the continuation of the Nation through us. We honor them in specific ways--never sitting in their seat at the table, never challenging them in public, etc--which reminds us that we must honor ourselves as representatives of Hashem in this world. Pretty cool stuff!

(2)
Reuven Frank,
August 14, 2012 12:29 PM

What?

Before I go any further here,
could someone PLEASE tell me
what does the "Big Bang Theory" have to do
with this Video?

Akiva Crown,
August 17, 2012 7:19 PM

Reuven

It is just the name of the show that this clip comes from. The show is about these various scientists hence the name of the show.

Anonymous,
May 11, 2016 4:26 PM

Sitcom

Its the name of a sitcom and has nothing to do with the theory presented by Georges Lemaître and shown to be true by Alan Guth in the 1980s about the expanding universe.

The sitcom is set in California and the actors play physicists at Caltech which offer a certain geekiness to the comedy. The name is reflective of this aspect of the show

(1)
Lyone,
August 13, 2012 10:27 PM

Um

I haven't seen this show....but, if this guy is supposed to be a grown man, why does he still live at home?

RachelB48,
August 14, 2012 11:39 AM

This show is about four young men who are all stereotypes; Howard is the worst of them, the Jewish man who never grows up.

I've been striving to get more into spirituality. But it seems that every time I make some progress, I find myself slipping right back to where I started. I'm getting discouraged and feel like a failure. Can you help?

The Aish Rabbi Replies:

Spiritual slumps are a natural part of spiritual growth. There is a cycle that people go through when at times they feel closer to God and at times more distant. In the words of the Kabbalists, it is "two steps forward and one step back." So although you feel you are slipping, know that this is a natural process. The main thing is to look at your overall progress (over months or years) and be able to see how far you've come!

This is actually God's ingenious way of motivating us further. The sages compare this to teaching a baby how to walk. When the parent is holding on, the baby shrieks with delight and is under the illusion that he knows how to walk. Yet suddenly, when the parent lets go, the child panics, wobbles and may even fall.

At such times when we feel spiritually "down," that is often because God is letting go, giving us the great gift of independence. In some ways, these are the times when we can actually grow the most. For if we can move ourselves just a little bit forward, we truly acquire a level of sanctity that is ours forever.

Here is a practical tool to help pull you out of the doldrums. The Sefer HaChinuch speaks about a great principle in spiritual growth: "The external awakens the internal." This means that although we may not experience immediate feelings of closeness to God, eventually, by continuing to conduct ourselves in such a manner, this physical behavior will have an impact on our spiritual selves and will help us succeed. (A similar idea is discussed by psychologists who say: "Smile and you will feel happy.")

That is the power of Torah commandments. Even if we may not feel like giving charity or praying at this particular moment, by having a "mitzvah" obligation to do so, we are in a framework to become inspired. At that point we can infuse that act of charity or prayer with all the meaning and lift it can provide. But if we'd wait until being inspired, we might be waiting a very long time.

May the Almighty bless you with the clarity to see your progress, and may you do so with joy.

In 1940, a boatload 1,600 Jewish immigrants fleeing Hitler's ovens was denied entry into the port of Haifa; the British deported them to the island of Mauritius. At the time, the British had acceded to Arab demands and restricted Jewish immigration into Palestine. The urgent plight of European Jewry generated an "illegal" immigration movement, but the British were vigilant in denying entry. Some ships, such as the Struma, sunk and their hundreds of passengers killed.

If you seize too much, you are left with nothing. If you take less, you may retain it (Rosh Hashanah 4b).

Sometimes our appetites are insatiable; more accurately, we act as though they were insatiable. The Midrash states that a person may never be satisfied. "If he has one hundred, he wants two hundred. If he gets two hundred, he wants four hundred" (Koheles Rabbah 1:34). How often have we seen people whose insatiable desire for material wealth resulted in their losing everything, much like the gambler whose constant urge to win results in total loss.

People's bodies are finite, and their actual needs are limited. The endless pursuit for more wealth than they can use is nothing more than an elusive belief that they can live forever (Psalms 49:10).

The one part of us which is indeed infinite is our neshamah (soul), which, being of Divine origin, can crave and achieve infinity and eternity, and such craving is characteristic of spiritual growth.

How strange that we tend to give the body much more than it can possibly handle, and the neshamah so much less than it needs!